So much for a “rivalry sparking playoff duel”. The Wings tossed the Avs to the side Thursday night, winning 8-2, and finishing off a four game sweep of Colorado.
Johan Franzen was sensational, scoring a hat trick by the end of the second period. Franzen has now scored 26 goals in his last 26 games going back to the regular season on Sun Mar 2 @ Buffalo when he recorded a goal and an assist while filling in for the injured Thomas Holmstrom. The “Mule” now leads all playoff scoring with 11 goals. Daniel Briere of the Flyers is a long-shot second with 8 goals.
Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg each recorded two goals of their own in the rout.
Detroit will now go to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year. They will face either Dallas or San Jose. Tired Wings fans would prefer Dallas, who currently leads the Sharks 3-1 in their series which continues Friday night @ San Jose.
We’ve seen it in the last two games especially, the Colorado Avalanche are taking stupid penalties, and the Red Wings aren’t letting them get away with it. But it isn’t just the PIM’s that have handed the Avalanche a 3-0 deficit in Round 2, they may actually be trying too hard. I noticed this especially in last nights 4-3 Wings win, the Av’s are overplaying the body, sending two or even three men to hit a Red Wing player, leaving goal scorers like Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg wide open in front of the Av’s goal.
Jose Theodore isn’t doing much to help them out either. Last night’s game was the first against the Red Wings when he played the whole 60 minutes, and he still gave up four goals in the loss.
The Wings will go into game four Thursday night confident and aiming for the sweep. The Wings come in with a 4.3 Goals Per Game Average in this series alone.